Franck, Melchior
1580-1639
Prolific church composer, who was born in Zittau, lived in Nuremberg about 1600 and became chapelmaster to the Duke of Coburg in 1603. Fortyfour works are credited to him by Gerber. His compositions were embellished in the Italian style and he was one of the first composers to make the instrumental accompaniment more independent, a point which was generally neglected by the composers of his day. Some of Franck's chorals are still heard. He wrote a vast amount of sacred music, chiefly psalms, the words to which were mostly in Latin. They appeared in various German cities between the years 1600 and 1636. A dissertation on the composer by Aloys Obrist was published in 1892.